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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES-No. 131 



WORDS OF 



Abraham Lincoln 




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PREFACE 



The object of this little collection of the "Words of 
Abraham Lincoln" is twofold — to lead to a better apprecia- 
tion of the strength and beauty of his character and to inspire 
a deeper and more abiding love for the country for whose 
preservation he gave his life. 

No man has ever lived in America whose life has been more 
closely identified witli the common people, and who yet has 
been more grandly influential in shaping the affairs of the 
nation. In the most critical period of her existence he saved 
her from calamity and ruin. His hand removed the foul 
stain of slavery, and made the Stars and Stripes in very truth 
the flag of the free. 

It seems a marvel, even here in America, that a poor, 
ignorant boy could aspire to the highest honor within the 
gift of the people ; but more marvelous still, that a country 
lawyer could grapple with the tremendous problems which 
had baffled the wisdom and skill of America's greatest states- 
men for almost half a century, and solve them successfully. 
Wholly unskilled in w\ir, he conducted the greatest war of 
modern times and brought it to a successful issue. With 
unerring judgment he found the correct solution of the most 
involved problems of law, finance, and diplomacy. 

It is inconceivable that a man's life could suddenly expand 
from the narrow round of private life to comprehend all the 
varied and tremendous responsibilities of this high position 
without previous preparation. Daniel Webster, on the night 
before his "Reply to Hayne," when asked why he was not 
making preparation for this the greatest event of his life, 
replied, that for twenty years he had been preparing for it ; 

5 



6 PREFACE 

that all the thought and activity of a lifetime had been so 
directed as to fit him for this supreme moment. And the 
same is true in regard to Lincoln. A mere glance at his 
life will show that every line of development, as if directed 
by a master hand, led straight on to the Presidential chair. 
Unquestionably his whole previous life was a preparation for 
his last four years, and when the crisis came he needed no 
further preparation : he was ready. 

It will be a mistake to attempt to teach the following 
selections as literature. They are not all masterpieces ; and 
some of them can hardly be called contributions to literature. 
But they have a deeper significance and a higher mission. 
They are the exponents of a character and the mirror of 
a life. They should be studied to reveal the soul of the man 
who wrote them, and to teach lessons of purity, simplicity, 
devotion to duty, and Mgh fidelity. In them, too, should be 
read a chapter of the nation's history, the culmination of its 
former life, the foundation of its future and grander activities. 
And, above, all they should conduce to form a higher and 
purer type of patriotism, of which their author was a shining 
example. 



INTEODUCTIOlSr 



The life of Abrabam Lincoln covers the most important period 
in American history. From the foundation of the Republic for- 
eign critics had been wont to predict its downfall, and even its 
friends feared that it might not stand the test of internal dis- 
sensions. The violent passions and bitter hostility which arose 
out of the conflict over the slavery issue finally brought on the 
great War of the Rebellion, which was destined to test to the utter- 
most the stability of American institutions. To Abraham Lincoln, 
more than to any other man in this crisis, is due the preservation 
of the Government and the establishment of the American Com- 
monwealth upon a firmer basis than ever before. 

He was emphatically a man of the people. He was born in 
poverty and ignorance, and his early life was spent in the cabin 
of the pioneer. An ordinary man could scarce have raised him- 
self, in such circumstances, above the dead level of ignorance 
and poverty into which he had been born. But Lincoln was 
possessed of a burning thirst for knowledge, and the education 
which his circumstances denied him he obtained by his own un- 
aided efforts. He was determined to rise above the intellectual 
level of his associates, and how well he succeeded his whole life 
shows. His earnest and self-denying efforts finally gained him 
admission to the bar. He practiced as a lawyer for a number 
of years, early gaining a reputation for incorruptible honesty and 
wise judgment. Wherever he was known he was trusted and 
loved. 

His tastes, however, led him to seek political preferment, and 
he was several times elected to the State Legislature, and once to 
Congress. 

^ Upon the organization of the Republican party he became one 
of its leaders, and in 1860 was its nominee for the Presidency. 

7 



8 INTRODUCTION 

Bitter dissensions in the Democratic party brouglit about its de- 
feat, and Lincoln was elected. 

The secession of the Southern States followed, and when he 
was inaugurated as President he was confronted with a divided 
country and a Constitution defied. 

The war which fo lowed was one of the most extensive and 
disastrous in history. Magnificent armies, made up of the finest 
soldiers in the world, contended with each other for four years for 
the supremacy of the American continent. 

The immediate cause of the war was the attempt of the South 
to extend slavery into the newly settled States of the West. But 
in reality the war was a decisive conflict between two great and 
opposing principles of government — Nationalism and States' 
rights. 

The North contended that the nation was supreme ; that the 
union existing between the States was so close and vital that no 
one State could secede from the rest. 

On the other hand, the South maintained that the State was 
sovereign, and that the union between the States was in the nature 
of a confederacy, which might at any time be dissolved, and from 
which any State had the right to withdraw. 

The issue of the war decided forever that the United States was 
a nation and not a confederacy, and also that hereafter slavery 
should not exist on American soil. 

The central figure of this, the darkest period of American his- 
tory, was Abraham Lincoln. Towards him every eye was turned, 
in him every hope rested ; and he never failed. His coolness, 
courage, and judgment never deserted him. For every emergency 
he was ready, and in the end he gained the victory and laid down 
his life upon the altar of his country. 

His literary works were mainly in the form of speeches and 
state papers, many of which are models of simple style and vigor- 
ous thought. His education was exceedingly limited, yet few 
have excelled him in the clear and pointed expression of noble 
ideas. 



'hronological Summary of the Leading Events 
IN Lincoln's Life 

He was born in Hardin County, Ky., Feb. 12, 1809. 

Removed to Indiana 1816. 

Removed to Macon County, HI., 1830. 

Became a clerk in a country store at New Salem, 1831. 

Commenced studying law, 1832. 

Elected to Legislature, 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840. 

Admitted to the Bar, 1836. 

Married Mary Todd, Nov. 4, 1842. 

Elected to Congress as a Whig, 1847. 

Republican party organized in Illinois, May 29, 1856. 

Nominated for the Senate by Republican party, 1858. 

Lincoln-Douglas debates, Aug. 21 — Oct. 15, 1858. 

Nominated for President, May 16, 1860. 

Elected President, Nov. 7, 1860. 

Inaugurated, March 4, 1861. 

Issued Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863. 

Re-elected, November 1864. 

Assassinated, April 14, 1865. 



Books for Reference 

There is no collection of the works of Lincoln. His letters, 
speeclies, proclamations, etc. , are scattered tlirough a wide range 
of publications. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were published 
in Cincinnati in 1859, but the book is now out of print. His 
messages to Congress and proclamations may be found in the Con- 
gressional Record, 1860-1865. McPherson's " Political History of 
the Rebellion " contains many of his official letters and orders 
that cannot be found elsewhere. 

There are scores of biographies and some exceedingly interest- 
ing volumes of recollections, a few of which are mentioned below. 

Nicolay and Hay's Life is a magnificent work in 10 vols., con- 
taining a complete history of the period, Arnold's Life is a 
standard work, interesting and reliable. " The Every-day Life 
of Lincoln," by Francis F. Browne, gives a better insight into his 
personality than perhaps any other. Herndon, Lincoln's law- 
partner, has written an extended sketch of his life previous to 
1860, which contains much new matter. Other biographies may 
be found in the " American Statesmen Series" and in the "Ameri- 
can Reformers Series," "Abraham Lincoln's Pen and Voice," 
by Van Buren, contains a partial collection of his most notable 
works. Chittenden's "Recollections of President Lincoln and his 
Administration " is exceedingly interesting, and sheds much light 
upon the inner workings of his administration. "Inside the 
White House," by Stoddard, is of interest, because it gives a good 
picture of the President's daily life. 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 



Early History 

In speaking of his boyhood Lincoln once remarked : 

My early history is perfectly characterized by a single line 

of Gray's Elegy : 

" The short and simple annals of the poor." 
At the request of a friend he wrote the following simple sketch 

of his early life : 

I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Va. My 
parents were born in Virginia, of undistinguishable families 
— second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who 
died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, 
some of whom now reside in Adams and others in Macon 
Counties, HI. 

My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from 
Kockingham County, Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or '83, 
where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in 
battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm 
in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to 
Virginia from Berks County, Pa. An effort to identify them 
with the New England family of the same name ended in 
nothing more than a similarity of Christian names in both 
families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, 
and the like. 

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years 
of age, and he grew up literally without education. He 
removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, 

11 



13 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

Ind., in my eighth year. We reached our new home about 
the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, 
with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. 
There I grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no 
qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond " readin','' 
' ' writin', " and ' ' cipherin' " to the Rule of Three. If a straggler 
supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the 
neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was 
absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. 

Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still, 
somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three, 
but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little 
advance I now have upon this store of education I have 
picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. 

I was raised to farm-work, which I continued till I was 
twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed 
the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at 
that time in Sangamon, now in Menard, County, where I 
remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the 
Black Hawk War,^ and I was elected a captain of volunteers 
— a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had 
since. I went through the campaign, ran for the Legislature 
the same year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I have 
ever been beaten by the people.^ The next and three succeed- 
ing biennial elections I was elected to the Legislature. I was 
not a candidate afterwards. During this legislative period 
I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. 
In 1846 I was once elected to the Lower House of Congress, 
but was not a candidate for re-election.' From 1849 to 1854, 
both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever 
before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the 
Whig electoral tickets,* making active canvasses. I was losing 



1. An interesting: account of his participation in this war may be found in 
"The Everyday Life of Lincoln,'" by Francis F. Browne. 

2. Lincoln was a candidate for U. S. Senator in 1858 and was beaten. 
Does not this fact contradict the above statement ? 

3. Why was he not a candidate for re-election ? 

4. What were the principles of the Whig Party, and by what party was it 
opposed ? 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 13 

interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise aroused me again. What I have done since then is 
pretty well known. 

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it 
may be said, I am, in height, six feet four inches nearly ; 
lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and 
eighty pounds ; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and 
gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln 

Addresses at Springfield 

On the 27th of January, 1837, he gave an address before the 
Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield upon the "Perpetuation 
of Our Political Institutions." The address was a remarkable 
one. It began as follows : 

In the great journal of things happening under the sun, 
we, the American people, find our account running under 
date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find 
ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion 
of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, 
and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the gov- 
ernment of a system of political institutions conducing more 
essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any 
of which the history of former times tells us. 

We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves 
the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled 
not in the acquirement or establishment of them ; they are a 
legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic 
but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. 

Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess 
themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, 
and to rear upon its hills and valleys a political edifice of 
liberty and equal rights :. 'tis ours only to transmit these — the 
former unprofaned by the foot of the invader, the latter 
undecayed by the lapse of time. This our duty to ourselves 
and to our posterity, and love for our species in general, im- 
peratively requires us to perform. 



14 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall we 
expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we 
fortify against it ? Shall we expect some transatlantic mili- 
tary giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow ? 
Never, All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, 
with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their 
military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, 
by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track upon 
the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years/ 

At what point then is the approach of danger to be ex- 
pected ? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring 
up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction 
be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As 
a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die 
by suicide. . . . 

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher 
to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to 
violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and 
never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots 
of ''seventy-six" did to the sujDport of the Declaration of 
Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws 
let every American pledge his life, his property, and his 
sacred honor ; let every man remember that to violate the 
law is to trample upon the blood of his father, and to tear 
the charter of his own and his children's liberties. Let rever- 
ence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to 
the lisping babe that prattles on her lap. Let it be taught 
in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges. Let it be written 
in primers, in spelling-books, and in almanacs. Let it be 
preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and 
enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become 
the political religion of the nation. 

In 1839 he delivered another remarkable address in Springfield, 
in the course of which occurs the following passage : * 



1. Is not this statement exaggei-ated ? 

2. This retnarli:abie passage was quoted by Bishop Simpson in his oration 
at Lincoln's funeral. 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 15 

Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours 
may lose. hers ; but if she shall, be it my proudest boast, not 
that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. 

In referring to the bitter hostility and corruption of the slave 
power, he said : 

Broken by it I too may be ; bow to it I never will. The 
probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter 
us from a cause that we deem to be just. It shall not deter 
me. If I ever feel the soul within me elevate and expand to 
those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Archi- 
tect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted 
by all the world beside, and I, standing up boldly and alone, 
hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. And here, with- 
out contemplating consequences, before high Heaven and in 
the face of the whole world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just 
cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and 
my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly 
adopt the oath I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, 
and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. 
We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our con- 
science and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, 
that the cause approved by our judgments and adored by our 
hearts in disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never 
failed in defending. 

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 

April 21, 1858, the Democratic State Convention met at Spring- 
field, and after heartily indorsing the course of Senator Douglas, 
announced him as the candidate of the party for another Sena- 
torial term.^ 

The career of Douglas was intimately connected with that of 
Lincoln. They were rivals in their profession and in politics, and 
finally were rival candidates for the Presidency. Stephen A. 
Douglas was a native of Vermont. In 1833 he emigrated to Illi- 
nois, at the age of twenty, feeble, friendless, and almost penni- 

1. How are Senators elected ? What was the reason for this unusuai pro- 
cedure ? Would a change in the method of electing Senators be desirable ? 



16 THE WORDS OF LINCOLIT 

less, seeking- bread and a career in tlie great West. In liis adopted 
State he rapidly rose to distinction. Success greeted his every 
effort, and glory and renown came at his bidding. 

At the age of twenty -one he was admitted to the bar, where he 
made such rapid progress that a year later he stood at the head 
of his profession in his district. At the age of twenty-three he 
was a member of the State Legislature ; at twenty-seven he was 
appointed Secretary of State in Illinois ; at twenty-eight he be- 
came Judge in the Supreme Court. At thirty he was a Member 
of Congress. At thirty -two United States Senator, and recognized 
as the leader of the Democratic party. At forty-three he was a 
candidate for nomination to the Presidency. At forty-six he was 
nominated, but was defeated by an irreconcilable division in his 
party. In his forty -eighth year he died, in the prime of life, yet 
with a well-rounded career behind him. 

In Congress he had become distinguished as the author of the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill,^ and had succeeded in securing its passage 
by his brilliant oratory and plausible arguments. 

This legislation concentrated the opposition to slavery in the 
North, and was one of the causes of the formation of the Repub- 
lican party. In this political movement Lincoln was one of the 
leaders. 

On June 16, 1858, the Republican State Convention met at 
Springfield and unanimously declared that " Abraham Lincoln is 
our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the 
vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Judge Douglas' 
term of office." 

Lincoln was invited to address the convention, and responded in 
an able and eloquent speech. 

The opening paragraph excited much hostile criticism. It 
sounded the key-note of the conflict which was destined to be 
waged more and more bitterly until the pet institution of the 
South should be swept out of existence. It was as follows : 

Mr. PRESroENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : ^f We 

could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we 
could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now 

1. "What were the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska bill ? What was the 
Missouri Compromise ? ^ , , „ .. 

2. Compare the opening paragraph of Webster's " Reply to Hayne." 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 17 

far into the fifth year since a policy ^ was initiated with the 
avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to 
slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that 
agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. 
In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been 
reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot 
stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in 
the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its 
advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful 
in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.^ 

In the ensuing campaign Lincoln proi)osed to Douglas that they 
enter into a series of joint debates upon the great questions of the 
day. The offer was accepted, and they agreed to meet in joint 
discussion in seven different places, viz., Ottawa, Freeport, Jones- 
boro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. The first de- 
bate was held August 21, and the last October 15, 

These debates were widely read, and attracted the attention of 
the whole country. They rank among the greatest forensic dis- 
cussions in the history of the world, A few short extracts from 
Lincoln's speeches follow. 

My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may be 
misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have said 
that I do not understand the Declaration ^ to mean that all men 
were created equal in all respects. They are not our equal in 
color; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that all men 
are equal in some respects : they are equal in their right to 
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

Certainly the negro is not our equal in color — perhaps not 

1. What was this policy ? 

2. Before dehveriiig this speech Lincoln read it to a number of his 
friends. At its conclusion one of them remarked: *' Lincoln, deliver that 
speech as you read it and it will make you President." Did it ? If so, why ? 

3. What declaration is referred to ''. When was it formulated, and under 
wliat circumstances ? (.It should be read in the class.) 



18 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

in many other respects ; still, in the right to put into his mouth 
the bread that his own hands have earned he is the equal of 
every other man, white or black. In pointing out that more 
has been given you, you cannot be justified in tjiking away the 
little which has been given him. All I ask for the negro is 
that, if you do not like him, you let him alone. If God gave 
him but little, that little let him enjoy. 

When our government was established we had the institu- 
tion of slavery among us.^ AYe were in a certain sense com- 
pelled to tolerate its existence.'^ It was a sort of necessity. We 
had gone through our struggle and secured our own independ- 
ence. The framers of tlie Constitution found the institution 
of slavery amongst their other institutions at the time. They 
found that by an effort to ^eradicate it they might lose much of 
what they had already gained. They were obliged to bow to 
the necessity. They gave power to Congress to abolish the 
slave-trade at the end of twenty years. They also prohibited 
it in the Territories where it did not exist.^ They did what 
they could, and yielded to necessity for the rest. I also yield 
to all which follows from this necessity." What I would most 
desire would be the separation of the white and black races. 

Henry Clay once said of a class of men who would repress all 
tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, that they 
must, if they would do this, go back to the era of our independ- 
ence and muzzle the cannon w^hich thunders its annual joyous 
return ; they must blow out the moral lights around us ; they 
must penetrate the human soul and eradicate there the love of 
liberty ; and then, and not until then, could they perpetuate 
slavery in this country! To my thinking, Judge Douglas is, by 
his example and vast influence, doing that very thing in this 
community when he says that the negro has nothing in the 
Declaration of Independence. Henry Clay plainly understood 
the contrary. Judge Douglas is going back to the era of our 

1. When was slavery first introduced into America ? What causes tended 
to develop it in the South ? 

2. Why ? 

3. Does this prohibition occur in the Constitution ? If not, where is it 
found ? 

4. What is the significance of this statement ? 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 19 

Revolution, and to the extent of his ability muzzling the can- 
non which thunders its annual joyous return. 

When he invites any people, willing to have slavery, to es- 
tablish it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. When 
he says he "cares not whether slavery is voted up or voted 
down "—that it is a sacred right of self-government— he is in 
my judgment penetrating the human soul, and eradicating the 
light of reason and the love of liberty in this American people. 

And now I will only say that when, by all these means and 
appliances, Judge Douglas shall succeed in bringing public 
sentiment to an exact accordance with his own views — when 
these vast assemblages shall echo back all these sentiments — 
then it needs only the formality of the second Dred Scott decis- 
ion,^ which he indorses in advance, to make slavery alike 
lawful in all the States— old as well as new, North as well as 
South. 

That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue 
in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas 
and myself shall be^ silent. It is the eternal struggle between 
these two principles— right and wrong— throughout the world. 
They are the two principles that have stood face to face from 
the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. 
The one is the common right of humanity, and the other is the 
divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever 
shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, " You 
work and toil and earn bread, and I will eat it." No matter in 
what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who 
seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the 
fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for 
enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle. 

The Cooper Institute Speech 

After his debates with Mr. Douglas the attention of the coun- 
try was attracted towards Mr. Lincoln. The people of the East 
desired to see and hear the man who had vanquished the most 

1. What was this famous decision ? 



20 THE WORDS OF LIITCOLN 

Blirewd debater and the most skillful and adroit politician in Con- 
gress. Therefore an invitation was extended to him to give a 
political address in New York on the 27th of February, 1859, 
which he accepted. He was introduced to the audience by the 
illustrious poet William Cullen Bryant, and was greeted by an 
audience which taxed the capacity of the great hall to the utter- 
most. 

'The address was in the main historical, tracing in a masterly 
manner the political history of the country in its relation to slav- 
ery, and discussing the great questions at issue in a fair and 
friendly spirit. It was afterwards published in pamphlet form, 
with the following introductory statement by the publishers : 

"No one who has not actually attempted to verify its details 
can understand the patient research and the historical labor 
which it embodies. The history of our earlier politics is scattered 
through numerous journals, statutes, pamphlets, and letters ; and 
these are defective in completeness and accuracy of statement, 
and in indexes and tables of contents. Neither can any one who 
has not traveled over this precise ground appreciate the accuracy 
of every trivial detail, or the self-denying impartiality with which 
Mr. Lincoln has turned from the testimony of ' the fathers ' on 
the general question of slavery to present the single question 
which he discusses. From the first line to the last, from his 
premises to his conclusion, he travels with a swift unerring direct- 
ness which no logician ever excelled. ... A single easy simple 
sentence of plain Anglo-Saxon words contains a chapter of history 
that, in some instances, must have taken days of labor to verify, 
and must have cost the author months of investigation to ac- 
quire." 

In this address he formulated the doctrines which were des- 
tined to be incorporated into the platform of the Republican 
party. He said : 

A few words now to Republicans : It is exceedingly desir- 
able that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace 
and in harmony one with another. Let us Republicans do 
our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do 
nothing through passion and ill-temper. Even though the 
Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN^ 21 

consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate 
view of our duty, we possibly can. 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it 
alone wiiere it is, because that much is due to the necessity 
arising from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, 
while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the Na- 
tional Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free States ? 
If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, 
fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those 
sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously 
plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some 
middle ground betw^een the right and the wrong, vain as the 
searcli for a man who should be neither a living man nor a 
dead man, — such as a policy of " don^t care" on a question 
about which all true men do care, — such as Union appeals, 
beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reveiising 
the divine rule and calling not the sinners but the righteous 
to repentance, — such as invocations of Washington, imploring 
men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washing- 
ton did. Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false 
accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of 
destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. 
Let us have faith that right makes might ; and in that faith 
let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it/ 

The Presidential Campaign 

The Republican nominating convention was held in Chicago in 
an immense building called the " Wigwam," May 16, 1860. Dele- 
gates were present from all the Free States, Delaware, Kentucky, 
Missouri, and Virginia, but the Gulf States were not represented. 
The leading candidates for the nomination were William H. Sew- 
ard, of New York ; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois ; Salmon P. 
Chase, of Ohio ; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania ; and Edward 
Bates, of Missouri. But it was soon evident that the contest 
would be between Seward and Lincoln, 



1. What was the condition of the South at the time this address was de- 
livered ? 



22 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

On the first ballot Seward received 173i votes to 102 for Lin- 
coln. Ou the second ballot Seward received 184, and Lincoln 181. 
On the third ballot Lincoln received a majority, and his nomina- 
tion was made unanimous. 

This nomination was received with intense enthusiasm, not only 
in Chicago and Illinois, but throughout the Northwest. 

Arnold, in his " Life of Lincoln," says : 

' ' This Presidential campaign has had no parallel. The enthu- 
siasm of the people was like a great conflagration, like a prairie 
fire before a wild tornado. A little more than twenty years had 
passed since Orrin Lovejoy, brother of Elijah Lovejoy,' on the 
bank of the Mississippi, kneeling on the turf not then green over 
the grave of the brother who had been killed for his fidelity to 
freedom, had sworn eternal war against slavery. 

" From that time on, he and his associate abolitionists had gone 
forth preaching their crusade against oppression, with hearts of 
fire and tongues of lightning, and now the consummation was to 
be realized of a President elected on the distinct ground of oppo- 
sition to the extension of slavery. For years the hatred of that 
institution had been growing and gathering force. Whittier, 
Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow, and others had written the lyrics of 
liberty ; the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe in ' Uncle Tom's Cabin ' 
had painted the cruelties of the overseer and slaveholder, but the 
acts of the slaveholders themselves did more to promote the 
growth of antislavery than all other causes. 

' ' The persecutions of the abolitionists in the South ; the harsh- 
ness and cruelty attending the execution of the fugitive-slave 
laws ; the brutality of Brooks in knocking down, on the floor of 
the Senate, Charles Sumner, for words spoken in debate,— these 
and many other outrages had fired the hearts of the people of the 
Free States against this barbarous institution. 

" Beecher, Phillips, Channing, Sumner, and Seward with their 
eloquence ; Chase with his logic ; Lincoln with his appeals to the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence and to the opinions 
of the founders of the Republic, his clear statements, his apt illus- 
trations ; above all, his wise moderation— all had swelled the voice 
of the people, which found expression through the ballot-box, and 



1. Elijah Lovejoy was shot by a mob at Alton on account of his abolition 
sentiments. 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 23 

wliich declared tliat slavery sliould go no farther. It was now 
proclaimed that ' the further spread of slavery should be arrested, 
and it should be placed where the public mind should rest in the 
belief of its ultimate extinction.' " 

There were four candidates : Lincoln, of the Republican party ; 
Douglas and Breckenridge, of opposing wings of the Democratic 
party ; and Bell, of the American party. Their votes were as 
follows : 

Lincoln received a popular vote of 1,866,452 and an electoral 
vote of 180. Douglas received 1,375,157 popular votes and 12 
electoral votes. Breckenridge received 847,953 popular votes and 
72 electoral votes. Bell received 590,631 popular votes and 39 
electoral votes. 

Lincoln's Letter accepting the Nomination 

Springfield, 111., May 23, 1860. 

Sir : I accept the nomination tendered me by the conven- 
tion over which you presided, of which I am formally apprised 
in a letter of yourself and others acting as a committee of the 
convention for that purpose. 

The declaration of principles and sentiments which accom- 
panies your letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care 
not to violate it or disregard it in any part. Imploring the 
assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the 
views and feelings of , all who were represented in the conven- 
tion, to the rights of all the States and Territories and people 
of the nation, to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the 
perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I am most 
happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles 
declared by the convention. 

Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 

Abraham Lincoln 

The Journey to Washington 

On February 11, 1861, he started for Washington. At the sta- 
tion he was surrounded by his friends, who had assembled to bid 
him farewell. Just before the train started he addressed the fol- 
lowing touching speech to them from the platform of the car : 



24 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

Friends : No one who has never been placed in a like posi- 
tion can understand my feeling at this hour, nor the oppres- 
sive sadness I feel at this parting. 

For more than a quarter of a century I have lived among 
you, and during all that time I have received nothing but 
kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth, 
until now I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of 
earth were assumed. Here all my children were born ; and 
here one of them lies buried. To you, dear friends, I owe all 
that I have, all that I am. All the strange, chequered past 
seems to crowd now upon my mind. 

To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult 
than that which devolved upon Washington. ' Unless the great 
God who assisted him shall be with and aid me, I must fail ; 
but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that di- 
rected and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall 
not fail — I shall succeed. 

Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake 
us now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me to ask, that, 
with equal security and faith, you will invoke His wisdom and 
guidance for me. With these few words I must leave you, 
for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now 
bid you an affectionate farewell." 

His journey to Washington had been so arranged that he would 
pass through many of the larger cities of the North. In each one 
he was cordially greeted, and his words were listened to atten- 
tively. At Philadelphia he had been invited to make an address 
in Independence Hall, "The Cradle of American Liberty."- He 
said : 

You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the 
task of restoring peace to the present distracted condition of 
our country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political 
sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have "been 
able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in, 



1. Why was it more difficult ? What were some of the difficulties which 
confronted him ? 

2. Why so called ? 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 25 

and were given to the world from, this halh I have never had 
a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments 
embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often 
pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men 
who assembled here and framed and adopted that Declaration 
of Independence. I have often inquired of myself what great 
principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long 
together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the 
colonies from the mother country, but that sentiment in the 
Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to 
the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all 
future time. It was that which gave promise that in duo 
time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all 
men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of In- 
dependence. Now, my friends, can the country be saved on 
this basis ? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the happi- 
est men in the world if I can help save it. If it cannot be 
saved upon that principle, it would be truly awful. But if 
this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, 
I was about to say, I would rather be assassinated on this spot 
than surrender it. 

First Inaugural Address 

March 4, 1861 

Fellow-citizens of the United States : In compliance with 
a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you 
to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath 
prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken 
by the President before he enters on the execution of his 
office. 

I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss 
those matters of administration about which there is no spe- 
cial anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist 
among the people of the Soutliern States that, by the accession 
of a republican administration, their property and their peace 
and personal security are to be endangered. There has never 



26 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

been any reasonable cause for sucli apprehension. Indeed, 
the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while 
existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in 
nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses 
you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I de- 
clare that " I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter- 
fere with the institution of slavery in the States where it 
exists." I believe I have no lawful right to do so ; and I have 
no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected 
me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this and 
made many similar declarations, and had never recanted 
them. ***** 

I now reiterate these sentiments ; and in doing so I only 
press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence 
of which the case is suscepti])le, that the property, peace, and 
security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the 
now incoming administration, 

I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with 
the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully 
given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever 
cause,— as cheerfully to one section as to another. ***** 

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a 
President under our National Constitution. During that 
period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have 
in succession administered the executive branch of the Gov- 
ernment. They have conducted it through many perils, and 
generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for prece- 
dent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitu- 
tional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties. 

A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only men- 
aced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the con- 
templation of universal law and of the Constitution the union 
of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not ex- 
pressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. 
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a pro- 
vision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to 
execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN- 27 

and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to de- 
stroy it except by some action not provided for in the instru- 
ment itself. 

Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but 
an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can 
it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the 
parties who made it ? One party to a contract may violate it 
—break it, so to speak ; but does it not require all to lawfully 
rescind it ? Descending from these general principles, we find 
the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is per- 
petual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. 

The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was 
formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was 
matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 
1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then 
Thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should 
be perpetual, by the Articles of the Confederation, in 1778 ; 
and finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining 
and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect 
Union. But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a 
part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less 
perfect than before, the Constitution having lost the vital ele- 
ment of perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere 
motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and 
ordinances to that effect are legally void ; and that acts of 
violence within any State or States against the authority of 
the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, accord- 
ing to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and 
the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my 
ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly 
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully 
executed in all the States. Doing this, which I deem to be 
only a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform it, so 
far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American 



28 THE WORDS OF LIXCOLN 

people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative 
manner direct the contrary. 

I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as 
the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally 
defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and 
there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national 
authority. 

The power confided to me will he used to liold, occiq:)!/, and 
possess the property and places helonging to the Government, 
and collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be 
necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using 
of force against or jimong the people anywhere. ***** 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we cannot remove 
our respective sections from each other, nor build an im- 
passable wall between them. A husband and wife may be 
divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach 
of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do 
this. They cannot but remain face to face ; and intercourse, 
either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is 
it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous 
or more satisfactory after the separation than before? Can 
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? 
Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than 
laws can among friends ? Suppose you go to war, you cannot 
fight always ; and when, after much loss on both sides and 
no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions 
as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people 
who inhabit it. Wlienever they shall grow weary of the 
existing government, they can exercise their constitutional 
right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember 
or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many 
worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the 
National Constitution amended. While I make no recom- 
mendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full authority 
of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 29 

either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and 
I should, under existing circumstances, favor, than rather 
oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act 
upon it. * * * * * 

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ulti- 
mate Justice of the people ? Is there any better or equal hope 
in the world? In our present differences is either party 
without faith of being in the right ? If the Almighty Kuler of 
nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side 
of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that 
justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great 
tribunal, the American people. By the frame of the govern- 
ment under which we live, this same people have wisely 
given their public servants but little power for mischief, and 
have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little 
to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people 
retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any 
extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the 
government in the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon 
this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking 

time. 

If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to 
a step which you would never take deliberately, that object 
will be frustrated by taking time ; but no good object can 
be frustrated by it. 

Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old 
Constitution unimpaired, and on the sensitive point, the laws 
of your own framing under it ; while the new administration 
will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. 

If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the 
right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for 
precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and 
a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, 
all our present difficulties. 
. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not 



30 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The govern- 
ment \Yill not assail you. 

You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the government, while I shall have the most solemn one 
to "preserve, protect, and defend" it. 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it 
must not break, our bonds of affection. 

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle- 
field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone 
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
better angels of our nature. 

Extract from Lincoln's First Message' to Congress 

A special session of Congress convened July 4, 1861, in obedi- 
ence to the summons of the President. His message portrayed 
the situation of affairs, and described the steps already taken by 
the government to meet the emergency. In it the President 
referred to the difficulties and perplexities with which he was 
confronted, and made suggestions in regard to methods of over- 
coming them, as follows : 

It may be affirmed, without extravagance, that the free 
institutions we enjoy have developed the powers and improved 
the condition of our whole people beyond any example in the 
world. Of this we now have a striking and an impressive 
illustration. 

So large an army as the government now has on foot was 
never before known, — without a soldier in it but who had taken 
his place there of his own free choice. But more than this : 
there are many single regiments whose members, one and 
another, possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, 
sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or 



1. Who was the first President to send a written messagre to Congress? 
It was at first the custom for the President to addiess Congress, upon its 
assembling, in person. 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLT^ 31 

elegant/ is known in the world ; and there is scarcely one 
from which there could not be selected a President, a Cabinet, 
a Congress, and perhaps a court, abundantly competent to 
administer the government itself. 

Nor do I say that this is not true also in the army of our 
late friends, now our adversaries, in this contest ; but if it is 
so, so much better the reason why the government, which 
has conferred such benefits on both them and us, should not 
be broken up. 

Whoever, in any section, proposes to abandon such a gov- 
ernment, would do well to consider in deference to what 
principle it is that he does it, what better he is likely to get 
in its stead, whether the substitute will give or be intended 
to give so much of good to the people. There are some 
foreshadowings upon this question. 

Our adversaries have adopted some declaration of inde- 
pendence, in which, unlike the good old one penned by 
Jefferson, they omit the words "all men are created equal." 
Why ? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, 
in the preamble ^ of which, unlike our good old one signed by 
Washington, they omit "We, the people," and substitute 
"We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." 
Why ? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of 
men and the authority of the people ? 

This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the 
Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form 
and substance of government whose leading object is to 
elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial weights from 
all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to 
afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race 
of life. 

Yielding to partial and temporary departures from neces- 
sity, this is the leading object of the government for whose 
existence we contend.^ 

1. Distiuguish between useful and elegant. What word could be more 
correctly used as the antithesis of useful f 

2. Derivation and meaning ? 

<i. Which of the words in this sentence are of Latin origin ? If Anglo- 



32 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand 
and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that, while in this, 
the government's hour of trial large numbers of those in the 
army and navy who have been favored with the offices have 
resigned and proven false to the hand which pampered them, 
not one common soldier or common sailor is known to have 
deserted his flag. 

Great honor is due to those officers who remained true, 
despite the example of their treacherous associates ; but the 
greatest honor and most important fact of all is the unanimous 
firmness of the common soldiers and the common sailors. 
To the last man, so far as known, they have successfully 
resisted the traitorous efforts of those whose commands but 
an hour before they obeyed as absolute law. This is the 
patriotic instinct of plain people. They understand, without 
an argument, that the destroying the government which was 
made by Washington means no good to them. 

Our popular government has often been called an experi- 
ment. Two points in it our people have already settled — 
the successful establishing and the successful administering 
of it. One still remains — its successful maintenance against 
a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. 

It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those 
who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebel- 
lion ; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors 
of bullets ; and that when ballots have fairly and consti- 
tutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back 
to bullets ; that there can be no successful appeal except 
to ballots themselves at succeeding elections. Such will be 
a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what they cannot 
take by an election, neither can they take it by war ; teaching 
all the folly of being beginners of a war. 

Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid ^ men 



Saxon words were substituted for the Latin words, how would the sentence 
differ iu f(irce and smoothness ? 

1. Derived from a Latin woi'd meaning "white." What is its present 
meaning, and how derived ? Cf. Candidate. 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 33 

as to what is going to be the course of the government 
towards the Southern States after the rebellion shall have 
been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say, it will 
be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided by the Constitution 
and the laws ; and that he will probably have no different 
understanding of the powers and duties of the Federal Gov- 
ernment relatively to the rights of the States and the people, 
under the Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural 
address. 

He desires to preserve the government, that it may be 
administered for all as it was administered by the men who 
made it. 

Loyal citizens everywhere have the right to claim this of 
their government, and the government has no right to with- 
hold or neglect it. It is not perceived that, in giving it, there 
is any coercion, any conquest, or any subjugation,' in any just 
sense of those terms. 

The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted 
the provision, that "the United States shall guarantee to 
every State in this Union a republican form of government." 
But if a State may lawfully go out of the Union, having done 
so, it may also discard the republican form of government ; 
so that to prevent its going it is an indispensable means to 
the end of maintaining the guarantee mentioned ; and when 
an end is lawful and obligatory, the indispensable means to 
it are also lawful and obligatory. It was with the deepest 
regret that the Executive found the duty of employing the 
war power in defence of the government forced upon him. 
He could but perform this duty or surrender the existence 
of the government. 

No compromise by public servants could in this case be 
a cure ; not that compromises are not often proper, but that 
no popular government can long survive a marked precedent, 
that those who carry an election can only save the gov- 
ernment from immediate destruction by giving up the main 

1. To wliat is allusion hei'e made ? 



34 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

point upon which the people gave the election. The people 
themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their 
own deliberate decisions. 

As a private citizen the Executive ^ could not have consented 
that these institutions shall perish ; much less could he iu 
betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as these free people 
had confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right 
to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life, in 
what might follow. In full view of his great responsibility 
he has so far done what he has deemed his duty. You will 
now, according to your own judgment, do yours. He sincerely 
hopes that your views and your action may so accord with 
his as to assure all faithful citizens, who have been disturbed 
in their rights, of a certain and speedy restoration to them 
under the Constitution and the laws. And having thus chosen 
our course, without guile and with a pure purpose, let us 
renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with 
manly hearts. 

Extract from Message of December 1862 
The Necessity of Xational Union 

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, 
and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of cer- 
tain duration. "One generation passeth away and another 
generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. " 

That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and in- 
habited by the people of the United States is well adapted to 
be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted 
for two or more. Its vast extent and variety of climate and 
productions are of advantage in this age for one people, what- 
ever they may have been in former ages. Steam, telegraphs, 
and intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous 
combination for one united people. 

There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national 
boundary upon which to divide. Trace through, from East to 

1. Why does he speak of himself in the third person ? 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 35 

West, upon the line between the free and slave country, and 
we shall find a little more than one third of its length are 
rivers easy to be crossed, and populated, or soon to be popu- 
lated, thickly on both sides ; while nearly all its remaining 
length are merely surveyors' lines, over which people may walk 
back and forth without any consciousness of their presence. 
No part of this line can be made any more difficult to pass by 
writing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary. 

-The fact of separation, if it comes, gives up on the part of 
the seceding section the fugitive-slave clause, along with all 
other constitutional obligations upon the section seceded from, 
while I should expect no treaty stipulations would ever be 
made to take its place. 

Bat there is another difficulty. The great interior region, 
bounded east by the Alleghanies, north by the British domin- 
ions, west by the Rocky Mountains, and south by the line 
along which the culture of corn and cotton meets, and which 
includes part of Virginia, part of Tennessee, all of Kentucky, 
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kan- 
sas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota, Nebraska, 
and a part of Colorado, already has above ten million people, 
and will have fifty million within fifty years, if not prevented 
by any political folly or mistake. 

It contains more than one third of the territory owned by 
the United States, certainly more than one million square mjles. 
One half as populous as Massachusetts already is, it would 
have more than seventy-five million people. A glance at the 
map shows that, territorially speaking, it is the great body of 
the Republic. The other ports are but marginal borders to it, 
the magnificent region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains 
to the Pacific being the deepest and also the richest 'in unde- 
veloped resources. 

In the production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all 
which proceeds from them, this great interior region is natu- 
rally one of the most important in the world. Ascertain from 
statistics the small proportion of the region which has as yet 
been brought into cultivation, and also the large and rapidly- 



36 THE WORDS OP LINCOLI^' 

increasing amount of its products, and we shall be over- 
^Yhelmed with the magnitude of the prospects presented. 

And yet this region has no sea-coast, touches no ocean any- 
where. As part of one nation, its people may find, and may 
forever find, their way to Europe by New York, to South 
America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by San 
Francisco. But separate our common country into two na- 
tions, as designed by the present rebellion, and every man of 
this great interior region is thereby cut off from some one or 
more of these outlets, not perhaps by a physical barrier, but 
by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations. ***** 

I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a 
paper addressed to the Congress of the nation by the Chief 
Magistrate of the nation. Nor do I forget that some of you are 
my seniors, nor that many of you have more experience than 
I in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that, in view of 
the great responsibility resting upon me, you will perceive no 
want of respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may 
seem to display. ***** 

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy 
present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we 
must rise with the occasion. As our case is entirely new^ so 
we must tliink anew and act anew. We must disenthrall our-- 
selves, and then we shall save our country. 

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Con- 
gress and this administration will be remembered in spite of 
ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare 
one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass 
will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest genera- 
tion. We say we are for the Union. The world will not for- 
get that'we say this. We know how to save the Union. The 
world knows we do know how to save it. We— even we here 
—hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving free- 
dom to the slave we assure freedom to the free — honorable 
alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly 
save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means 
may succeed, this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 37 

generous, just — a way which,' if followed, the world will for- 
ever applaud, and God must forever bless. 

Recommendation to Congress, March 6, 1862, in Regard to 
a Gradual and Compensated Emancipation 1 

I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your hon- 
orable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows : 

Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with 
any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, 
giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in 
its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, both pub- 
lic and private, produced by such change of system.^ 

If the proposition ' in the resolution does not meet the ap- 
proval of Congress and the country, there is the end ; but if it 
does command such approval, I deem it important that the 
States and people immediately interested should be at once 
distinctly notified of the fact, so that tliey may begin to con- 
sider whether to accept or reject it. 

The Federal would" find its highest interest in such a meas- 
ure as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. 
The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope 
that this government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge 
the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and 
that all the slave States north of such part will then say, " The 
Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we 
now choose to go with the southern section. " 

To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebel- 
lion ; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives 
them of it, as to all of the States initiating it. The point is 
not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at 
all, initiate emancipation, but that while the offer is equally 
made to all, the more northern shall, by such initiation, make 
it certain to the more southern that in no event will the former 
ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say 

1. Compare this method of emancipation with tliat adopted by England 
and Russia. 
3. Derivation and original meaning. 



38 THE WORDS OF LIXCOLN 

''initiation," because in my judgment gradual, and not sud- 
den, emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or 
pecuniary view, any member of Congress with the census tables 
and treasury reports before him can readily see for himself 
how very soon the current expenditures of this war would pur- 
chase at a fair valuation all the slaves in any named State. 
Such a proposition on the part of the general government sets 
up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with 
slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute 
control of the subject in each case to the State and its people- 
immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly 
free choice with them. 

In the annual message last December I thought fit to say, 
"The Union must be preserved; and hence all indispensable 
means must be employed. " I said this not hastily, but delib- 
erately. War has been made, and continues to be an indispen- 
sable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of 
the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and 
it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the 
war must also continue ; and it is impossible to foresee all the 
incidents that may attend and all the ruin which may follow 
it. Such as may seem indispensable, or may obviously prom- 
ise great efficiency toward ending the trouble must and will 
come. The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope 
it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary 
consideration tendered w'ould not be of more value to the 
States and private persons concerned than are the institution 
and property in it in the present state of affairs. 

"While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution 
would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical 
measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon 
lead to important practical results. In full view of my great 
responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg 
the attention of Congress and the peoj^le to the subject.' 

Abraham Lincoln 

1. Lincoln was fully pledged to this method of emancipation, and he ex- 
hausted every efifort to carry it into effect, but without success. The South- 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 39 

Lincoln's Policy 

In tlie following letter, written in April 1864, Lincoln clearly 
states the causes which led to the emancipation of the slaves. 
When he became President he believed he had no right to inter- 
fere with slavery in the States in which it then existed. He was 
earnestly importuned by many zealous abolitionists to free the 
slaves at once ; but such an act would have been unconstitutional 
and revolutionary, unless sanctioned by military necessity. This 
he clearly recognized, and although his sympathies were with the 
slaves, he could not be induced to take the step until he became 
convinced that the preservation of the Union demanded it. 

I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the 
Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the 
duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that govern- 
ment, that nation, of which that Constitution w^as the organic 
law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the 
Constitution ? 

By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often a 
limb must be amputated to save a life, but a life is never 
wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise 
unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispen- 
sable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preser- 
vation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, 
and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of my 
ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution if, to pre- 
serve slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the WTeck 
of government, country, and Constitution altogether. 

When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted mili- 
tary emancipation,^ I forbade it, because I did not then think 
it an indispensable necessity. 

When, a little later. General Cameron, then Secretary of War, 
suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did 
not yet think it an indispensable necessity. 

ern States would listen to no friendly overtures, and it is perhaps better for 
the country that they did not. Slavery had become so firmly established 
upon American soil that to be destroyed it must be rooted out with violence. 
The President finally came to recognize this fact, and ceased his efforts for 
compensated emancipation. 
I. Xn Missouri. What were the circumstances ? 



40 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

When, still later, General Hunter attempted military eman- 
cipation, I forbade it, because I did not yet think the indis- 
pensable necessity had come. 

When in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest 
and successive appeals to the border States to favor compen- 
sated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for 
military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, un- 
less averted by that measure. 

They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judg- 
ment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the 
Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand 
upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it 
I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was not en- 
tirely confident. 

More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our 
foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none 
in our white military force, no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. 
On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty 
thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable 
facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We 
have the men, and we could not have had them without the 
measure. 

And now let any Union man, who complains of this measure, 
test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subdu- 
ing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that he is 
for taking three hundred and thirty thousand men from the 
Union side, and placing them where they would be best for 
the measure which he condemns. If he cannot face his case 
so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth. 

In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own 
sagacity ; I aim not to have controlled events, but confess 
plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of 
three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either 
party or any man devised or expected. 

God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. 
If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also 
that we of the North, as w^ell as you of the South, shall pay 



THE WORDS OP LINCOLN 41 

fairly for our complicity in that great wrong, impartial history 
will find therein new causes to attest and revere the justice 
and goodness of God. 

Lincoln himself gave the following account of the events which 
led to the issuing of the proclamation : 

If had got to be midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on 
from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of 
our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing ; that 
we had about played our last card, and must change our tac- 
tics or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of 
the emancipation policy, and without consultation with or the 
knowledge of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the 
proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabi- 
net meeting on the subject. This was the last of July or the 
first part of the month of August 1862. I said to the Cabinet 
that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them 
together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of 
the proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would 
be in order after they had heard it read. 

Various suggestions were offered. Secretary Chase wished 
the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. 
Mr. Blair deprecated the policy on the ground that it would 
cost the administration the Fall elections. Nothing, however, 
was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled 
in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in 
substance : " Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but 
I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The 
depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated 
reverses, is so great, that I fear the effect of so important a 
step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted 
government, a cry for help ; the government stretching forth 
its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her 
hands to the government." 

His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek on 
the retreat. " Now," continued Mr. Seward, "while I approve 
of the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue until 
you can give it to the country supported by military success, 



42 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the 
greatest disasters of the war." 

The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me 
with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in 
all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. 
The result was, that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, 
waiting for a victory. From time to time I added or changed 
a line, touching it up here and there, anxiously watching the 
progress of events. Well, the next news we had was of 
Pope's disaster at Bull Kun. Things looked darker than ever. 
Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I deter- 
mined to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednes- 
day, that the advantage was on our side. I was then staying 
at the Soldiers' Home. Here I finished writing the second 
draft of the preliminary proclamation ; came up on Saturday ; 
called the Cabinet together to hear it, and it was published the 
following Monday. 

Preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation 

Sept. 22, 18G2. 

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of Amer- 
ica, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, 
do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, 
the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restor- 
ing the constitutional relation between the United States and 
each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States that 
relation is or may be suspended or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, 
to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure ten- 
dering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all 
slave States so-called, the people whereof may not then be in 
rebellion against the United States, and which States may then 
have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, 
immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their 
respective limits ; and that the effort to colonize persons of 
xifrican descent, with their consent, upon this continent or 



THE WORDS OP LIN^COLN 43 

elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the govern- 
ments existing there, will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the 
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; and 
the Executive Department of the United States, including the 
military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and main- 
tain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to 
repress such persons, or any of them in any efforts they may 
make for their actual freedom. 

Tliat the Executive will, on the first day of January, by proc- 
lamation aforesaid, designate the States and parts of States, 
if any, in whicli the people thereof respectively shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and the fact that any 
State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith 
represented in the Congress of the United States, by members 
chosen thereto at election wherein a majority of the qualified 
voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence 
of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evi- 
dence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in 
rebellion against the United States. 

Abraham Lincoln 

Speech at a Serenade in Honor of the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation 

Sept. 24, 1862 

Fellow-citizens : I appear before yon to do little more 
than to acknowledge the courtesy you pay me, and to thank 
yon for it. I have not been distinctly informed why it is on 
this occasion you appear to do me this honor, though I suppose 
it is because of the proclamation. I was about to say, I sup- 
pose I understand it. What I did I did after very full deliber- 
ation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of responsi- 
bility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake. I 



44 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

shall make no attempt on this occasion to sustain what I have 
done or said by any comment. It is now for the country and 
the world to pass judgment upon it, and, may be, take action 
upon it. I will say no more upon this subject. In my position 
I am environed with difficulties. Yet they are scarcely so 
great as the difficulties of those who, upon the battlefield, are 
endeavoring to purchase with their blood and their lives the 
future happiness and prosperity of the couutry. Let us never 
forget them. On the fourteenth and seventeenth days of the 
present month there have been battles bravely, skillfully, and 
successfully fought. "We do not yet know the particulars. 
Let us be sure that in giving praise to particular individuals 
we do no injustice to others. I only ask you at the conclusion 
of these few remarks to give three hearty cheers to all good 
and brave officers and men who fought these successful battles. 

Final Proclamation of Emancipation 

January 1, 1863. 

Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclama- 
tion was issued by the President of the United States, contain- 
ing, among other things, the following, to wit : 

" That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 
as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, 
the people w^hereof shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; 
and the Executive Government of the United States, including 
the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or 
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they 
make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will, on the first day of January afore- 
said, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, 
if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and the fact that any 
State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 45 

represented in the Congress of the United States by members 
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
voters of such State shall have participated shall, in the ab- 
sence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclu- 
sive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not 
then in rebellion against the United States ; "^ 

Noiv, therefore^ I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, 
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority of, and 
government of, the United States, and as a fit and necessary 
war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first 
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose 
so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hun- 
dred days from the day first above mentioned, order, and des- 
ignate, as the States and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the 
United States, the following, to wit : Arkansas ; Texas ; Louisi- 
ana, except the parishes of St. Bernard, Phiquemines, Jeffer- 
son, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, 
Terre Bonne, Lafonrche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, in- 
cluding the city of New Orleans ; Mississippi ; Alabama ; Flor- 
ida ; Georgia ; South Carolina ; North Carolina ; and Virginia, 
except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, 
and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, 
Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including 
the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and which excepted 
parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation 
were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I 
do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within 
said designated States and parts of States are, and hencefor- 
ward shall be, free ; and that the Executive Government of the 
United States, including the military and naval authorities 
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said per- 
sons. 



46 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, 
to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense ; 
and I recommend to them that in all cases, when allowed, 
they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons of 
suitable condition will be received into the armed service of 
the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I in- 
voke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious, 
favor of Almighty God. 

In Testimony wliereof, I have hereunto set my name and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
three, and of the Independence of the United States of America 
the eighty-seventh. 

Abraham Lincoln 
By the Pkesidekt : 
William H. Seward, Secretary of State. 

Lincoln's Speech at the Dedication of the National Ceme- 
tery at Gettysburg 

November 15, 1863 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and 
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We 
have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting- 
place for those who here gave their lives that that nation 
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should 
do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot 
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, 
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 47 

above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, 
nor long remember, what we say here ; but it can never forget 
what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedi- 
cated here to the unfinished w^ork which they who fought here 
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from 
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause 
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ; that 
we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in 
vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people shall not perish from the earth. 

The Gettysburg address, though short, ranks as one of the great- 
est American classics, and as such it was recognized both at home 
and abroad. The Westminster Revieic said of it : 

" It has but one equal— in that pronounced upon those who fell 
in the first year of the Peloponnesian war ; and in one respect it is 
superior to that great speech. It is not only more natural, fuller 
of feeling, more touching and pathetic, but we know with absolute 
certainty that it was really delivered. Nature here takes prece- 
dence of art — even though ,t be the art of Thucydides. " 

Proclamation 

Aijril 10, 1862 

It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to 
the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal 
rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the 
dangers of foreign intervention and invasion. ' 

It is therefore recommended to the peoj^le of the United 
States, that at their next weekly assemblages in their accus- 
tomed places of public worship, which shall occur after the 
notice of this proclamation shall have been received, they 
especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly 
Father for these inestimable blessings ; that they then and 
there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all those who 
have been brought into affliction by the casualties and calami- 

1. To what is reference here made ? 



48 THE WOKUS OF LINCOLN 

ties of sedition and civil war; and that tliey reverently invoke 
the divine guidance for our national councils, to the end that 
they may speedily result in the restoration of peace, harmony, 
and unity throughout our borders, and hasten the establish- 
ment of fraternal relations among all the countries of the 
earth. 

Proclamation 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, November 16, 1862. 

The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, 
desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by 
the officers and men in the military and naval service. The 
importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, 
the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming 
deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a 
due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in 
the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict neces- 
sity. 

The discipline and character of the national forces should 
not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the 
profanation of the day or the name of the Most High. " At 
the time of public distress," adopting the words of Washing- 
ton, in 1776, " men may find enough to do in the service of 
God and their country, without abandoning themselves to viae 
and immorality." 

The first general order issued by the "Father of his country," 
after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in 
which our institutions were founded, and should ever be de- 
fended : 

"The general hopes and trusts that every officer and man 
will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, 
defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country." 

A. Lincoln 



THE WORDS OP LINCOLN 49 

Proclamation 

July 15, 1863^ 

It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications 
and prayers of our afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the 
army and navy of the United States, on the land and on the 
sea, victories so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable 
grounds for augmented confidence that the Union of these 
States will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and 
their peace and prosperity permanently secured ; but these 
victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life, limb, 
and liberty, incurred by brave, patriotic, and loyal citizens. 
Domestic affliction in every part of the country follows in the 
train of these fearful bereavements. 

It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of 
the Almighty Father, and the power of His hand, equally in 
these triumphs and these sorrows. 

Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, 
tlie Gth day of August next, to be observed as a day for national 
thanksgiving, praise, and prayer ; and I invite the people of 
the United States to assemble on that occasion in their custom- 
ary places of worship, and, in the form approved by their own 
conscience, render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for 
the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, and 
invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger 
which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel 
rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the 
councils of the government with wisdom adequate to so great 
a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and conso- 
lation, throughout the length and breadth of our land, all 
those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, 
battles, and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body, 
or estate, and, finally, to lead the whole nation, through paths 
of repentance ^ and submission to the Divine will, back to the 
perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace. 

1. What occasion called forth this proclamation ? 

2 Why does he summon the nation to repentance ? To what extent was 
the North responsible for the evil of slavery ? 



60 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

Proclamation 
October 3, 1863 

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled 
with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. 

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that 
man is prone to forget the source from which they came, 
others have been added which are of so extraordinary a 
nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even 
the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful 
providence of Almighty God. 

In the midst of a civil war of unparalleled magnitude and 
severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke 
the aggressions of foreign States, peace has been preserved 
with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have 
been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed every- 
where except in the theater of military conflict, while that 
theater has been greatly contracting by the advancing armies 
and navies of the Union. 

The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the 
fields of peaceful industry to the national defense has not 
arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship. 

The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements; and 
the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, 
have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Popu- 
lation has steadily increased, notwithstanding the v/aste that 
has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field ; 
and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented 
strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of 
years, with large increase of freedom. 

No human council hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand 
worked out, these great things. They are the gracious gifts 
of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger 
for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be 
solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with 
one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do, 
therefore, invite my fellow-citizens, in every part of the 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 51 

United States, and also those who are at sea, and those 
who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe 
the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving 
and prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the 
heavens ; and I recommend to them that while offering up 
the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliver- 
ances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for 
our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His 
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, 
mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which 
we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the in- 
terposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the 
nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the 
Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, 
tranquillity, and union. 

Lincoln's Description of Grant to a Friend 

March 1864 

Well, I hardly know what to think of him. He is the 
quietest little fellow you ever saw. Why, he makes the least 
fuss of any man you ever knew. I believe two or three times 
he has been in this room a minute or so before I knew he 
was here. It's about so all around. The only evidence you 
have that he's in any place is that he makes things "git." 
Wherever he is he makes things move. 

Grant is the first general I have had. He's a general. 
I'll tell you what I mean : You know how it's been with all 
the rest. As soon as I put a man in command of the army, 
he'd come to me with a plan of a campaign, and about as 
much as say, " Now, I don't believe I can do it, but if you say 
so, I'll try it on," and so put the responsibility of success or 
failure upon me. They all wanted me to be the general. 
Now, it isn't so with Grant. He hasn't told me what his 
plans are. I don't know and I don't want to know. I'm 
glad to find a man that can go ahead without me. You see, 
when any of the rest set out on a campaign, they'd look over 
matters and pick out some one thing they were in want of 



52 THE WOEDS OF LINCOLN 

and they knew I couldn't give them, and tell me they couldn't 
hope to win unless they had it ; and it was the most generally 
cavalry. 

Now when Grant took hold, I was waiting to see what his 
pet impossibility would be, and I reckoned it would be cavalry, 
as a matter of course, for we hadn't horses enough to mount 
what we had. There were fifteen thousand, or thereabouts, 
up near Harper's Ferry, and no horses to put them on. 

Well, the other day Grant sends to me about those very 
men, just as I expected; but what he w^anted to know was 
whether he should make infantry of them or discharge them. 
He doesn't ask impossibilities of me, and he's the first general 
I've had that didn't.* 

Second Inaugural Address 
March 4, 1865 

Fellow-countrymen : At this second appearing to take the 
oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an ex- 
tended address than there was at the first. Then a statement 
somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fit- 
ting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during 
which public declarations have been constantly called forth on 
every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs 
the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little 
that is new could be presented. 

The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly de- 
pends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I 
trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With 
high hope for the future, prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all 
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. 
All dreaded it ; all sought to avert it. While the inaugural ad- 
dress was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether 
to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the 

1. This is a prood example of Lincoln's colloquial style. Wliat are some of 
its elements and peculiarities ? It is evidently not v)olJslied, but is it strong ? 
Do you find in it anything indicative of the character of the man ? 



THE WORDS, OF LINCOLN 63 

city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the 
Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties depre- 
cated war : but one of them would make war rather than let 
the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather 
than let it perish. And war came. One eighth of the whole 
population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over 
the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These 
slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew 
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To 
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object 
for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war, 
while the government claimed no right to do more than to re- 
strict the territorial enlargement of it. 

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the 
duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated 
that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, 
the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier 
triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. 

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God ; and 
each invokes His aid against the other. 

It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just 
God's assistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of 
other men's faces ; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 

The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither 
has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own pur- 
poses. 

" Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs 
be that offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the 
offense cometh." 

If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these 
offenses, which in the providence of God must needs come, but 
which, having continued through His appointed time. He now 
wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South 
this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense 
came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine 
attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe 
to Him? 



54 THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills 
that it continue until the wealth piled by the bondman's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid 
with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thou- 
sand years ago so still it must be said, " The judgments of the 
Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in ; to care for him who shall have 
borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans ; to bind up the 
nation's wounds ; to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 

Origin of the Greenback 

A letter icritten 'by Lincoln to Colonel E. D. Taylor y of Cldcago, 
December, 1861 

My dear Colonel : I have long determined to make public 
the origin of the greenback,^ and tell the world that it is one 
of Dick Taylor's creations. 

You have always been friendly to me, and when troublous 
times fell upon us, and my shoulders, though broad and will- 
ing, were weak, and myself surrounded by such circumstances 
and such people that I knew not whom to trust, then I said in 
my extremity, "I will send for Colonel Taylor ; he will know 
what to do." 

I think it was in January, 1862, on or about the 16th, that 
I did so. 

You came, and I said to you, "What can we do?" Said 
you, "Why, issue Treasury notes bearing no interest, printed 

1. At the beginninpj of the war the funds in the National Treasury were 
nearly exhausted. Expenses exceeded the revenues and increased day by 
day, until it was found that some extraordinary measure must be adopted 
or the nation would become bankrupt. In this emergency Lincoln, and 
Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, determined upon the issue of a paper 
currency, Avhich should be recognized as legal tender, and used in payment 
of the expenses of the war. This plan succeeded bej-ond the most sanguine 
hopes, and contributed in no small degree to the success of the National 
cause. 



THE WOKDS OF LINCOLN 55 

on the best banking paper. Issue enough to pay off the army 
expenses, and declare it legal tender." 

Chase thought it a hazardous thing, but we finally accom- 
plished it, and gave to the people of this Republic the greatest 
blessing they ever had — their own paper to pay their own 
debts. 

It is due to you, the father of the present greenback, that the 
people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it 
known. How many times have I laughed at you telling me 
plainly that I was too lazy to be anything but a lawyer. 

Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln, President. 

Capital and Labor 

Extract from the First Annual Message 

Upon the assembling of Congress in December, 1861, Lincoln 
presented his first annual message. The following passage dis- 
cusses the relationship between labor and capital, and was sug- 
gested by the growing tendency to legislate in favor of the latter. 
The economical problems of society and government are the most 
complicated and difficult of all those with which a nation is com- 
pelled to deal. In view of the increasing importance of these 
questions this passage is significant. 

It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument 
should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is 
one point, not so hackneyed * as most others, to which I ask a 
brief attention. It is the effort to put capital ^ on an equal 
footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government. 

It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with 
capital, that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capi- 
tal, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to labor. This 
assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital 
shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work, by their 
own consent, or shall buy them and drive them to it without 
their consent. 

1. Derived from a word ■which means a horse. What is its present 
meaning^, and how derived ? 

2. Derivation and meaning ? 



56 THE WOKDS OF LINCOLN 

Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all 
laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves/ And 
further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is 
fixed in that condition for life. 

Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor 
assumed; nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed 
for life in the condition of a laborer. Both these assumptions 
are false, and all inferences from them are groundless. Labor 
is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the 
fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not 
first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves 
much the higher consideration. 

Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as 
any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably 
always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing 
mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor 
of a community exists within that relation. A few men own 
capital, and those few avoid labor themselves, and, with their 
capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. 

A large majority belong to neither class — neither work for 
others nor have others working for them.^ In most of the 
Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors 
are neither slaves nor masters; while in the North a large 
majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their fami- 
lies, work for themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and 
in their shops, taking th.^ whole product to themselves, and 
asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired 
laborers or slaves on the other. 

It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons 
mingle their own labor with capital — that is, they labor with 
their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them; 
but this is only a mixed, not a distinct, class. No principle 
stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. 

Again, as has already been said, there is not, of necessity, 
any such thing as a free hired laborer being fixed to that con- 

1. What is the derivation of the word ? 
5j. Is this statement true now ? 



THE WORDS OF LINCOLN 57 

dition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these 
States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers. 
Tlie prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages 
awhile, saves a surplus wdth which to buy tools or land for 
himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at 
length hires another new beginner to help him. 

This is the just and generous and prosperous system, which 
opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy 
and progress and improvement of condition to all. 

No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those 
wlio toil up from poverty— none less inclined to take, or toucli, 
aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware 
of surrendering a political power which they already possess, 
and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door 
of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabili- 
ties and burdens upon them until all of liberty shall be lost. 

The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day — it is for 
a vast future also. "With a reliance upon Providence all the 
more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which 
events have devolved upon us. 



RUSKIN'S WORKS 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT 

THE AUTHORIZED (BRANTWOOD) EDITION 

With special introduction to each volume of prose works by 

Prof. Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard College. 

Tyi R. GEORGE ALLEN begs to announce that Ruskin's Works will 

hereafter be published in America by Messrs. CHARLES E. 

MERRILL & CO. (Maynard, Merrill, & Co. successors), of New York, 

who will issue the only authorized editions. London, Augw'.t, 1890 



We have the pleasure of announcing that the Brantwood Edition of 
Raskin's Works, in 21 volumes, is now ready. This is the only edition 
pubiisiied in this country with Mr. Ruskin's consent and from the sale of 
wliich he derives a profit. The illustrations have been prepared under the 
author's personal supervision, and the type, paper, and style of binding are 
in accordance with his suggestions. Each vohivie of the prose ivorks con- 
tains a special introduction by Prof. Charles Eliot I^'orton, of Harvard 
College, Mr. Ruskin's most intimate friend and most acute and sympathetic 
critic. The two volumes of poetry written between the ages of seven and 
twenty six, with an appendix of later poems, are edited with notes biograph- 
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The chronological arrangement of the poems— the author's age at the time 
of writing being printed at the top of each page— illustrates in a most inter- 
esting manner the development of the author's mind and style. The un- 
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the illustrated volumes for $'2.75 each in cloth and $4.00 in half calf. The 
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law. 

The attention of the public is called to the fact that, by virtue of this 
copyright, we shall hereafter be the only publishers in this country able to 
supply Ruskin's works complete, in a uniform style of binding. All Enghsh 
editions of Ruskin now in print are kept in stock or will be imported at 
short notice. 

The New York Evening Post says :— Its authenticity is vouched for by 
the introductions furnished by Prof, C. E. Norton. 

The Literary World, Boston says :— The Brantwood edition is printed 
from English plates and bound in olive-green cloth, the volumes measuring 
five inches by seven and one-half. The type is of good size, the paper 
opaque. In simple elegance this new edition deserves, indeed, to be "ap- 
proved by him," and, with the aid of Professor Norton's introductions, it will 
undoubtedly commend itself to the taste, as well as to the con.science, of 
American disciples of the great art-critic who has taught our generation so 
sound a gospel. 

The Critic says :— It is a long-delayed but highly appreciated compliment 
to America that Mr. Ruskin has at length permitted his innumerable admir- 
ers here to follow his thouo:ht in an " authorized " edition of works long since 
classic and perennially fresh. It seemed as if Westminster Abbey were 
about to close over a great heart without this graceful act of recognition, if 
not of reparation, and as if American eves were always to gaze on Ruskin's 
enchanted gardens throuarh casual glimpses and crevices of the wall. At 
length, however, Mr. Ruskin has consented to be " Americanized "—to the 
extent, at least, of having a business representative in the United States; 
and the result is a series of volumes faultless in tvpe. delightful in manu- 
facture, and as impretentious in externals as those Arabian houses which, 
without, present simply surfaces of plain wall, but within are all dazzling 
with play of flower and fountain. Each light, manageable volume is clad, 
like Robin Hood, in a robe of dark green : within all is white, clean, piM-e^ 
beautifully distinct and clear— a gem and a charm of print and leaf. 

For sale by all booksellers, or sevt hy mail on receipt of price. 

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AText-Book on English Literature, 

With copious extracts from the leading authors, English and Ameri- 
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to be studied. Adapted for use in Colleges, High Schools, 
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Each Period is preceded by a Lesson containing a brief resum^ of the 
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Extracts, as many and as ample as the limits of a text-book would 
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** I find the book in its treatment of English literature Foperior to any other I 
have examined. lis main feature, which should be the le idiiig one of all eimilar 
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WORD LESSONS: A Complete Speller. 

Adapted for use in the Higlier Primary, Intermediate, and Gram- 
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and as are most likely to be Misspelled, Mispronounced or Misused, 
and to awaken new interest in the study of Synonyms and of Word- 
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in English," and "Higher Lessons in English." 188 pages, 13mo. 

The book is a complete speller, and was made to supplement th«> 
reading lesson and otner language work. 1st. — By grouping xnose 
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to stimulate the pupil, not only to observe the exact form of words, 
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affording a systematic course of training in pronunciation. 

Word Lessons recognizes work already done in the reader, and 
does not attempt its repetition as do the old spellers, and other new 
ones now demanding attention. 

The author has spared no trouble in his search among the works 
of the best writers for their best thoughts, with which to illustrate the 
use of words. Great care has been taken in grading the work to the 
growing vocabulary of the learner. " 



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A Text-Book on Rhetoric; 

Supplementing the Development of the Science with 
Exhaustive Practice in Composition. 

A Course of Practical Lessons adapted for use in High Schools 
and Academies, and in the Lower Classes of Colleges. 

BY 

BRAINERD KELLOGG, LL.D., 

Professor of the English Language and Literature in the Brooklyn 

Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, and one of the authors of 

Reed & Kellogg' s " Graded Lessons in English" 

and ** Higher Lessons in English," 



The plan pursued in the book is simple. After fully and clearly 
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sacrificed to show; the book is intended for use, and the abundance of examples 
ffill constitute one of its chief merits in the eyes of the thorough teacher."— P»-or. 
A. S. Cook^ Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 

346 pages, 12mo, attractively bound in cloth. 



Maynard, Merrill, & Co., New York. 



\ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES, 

FOB 

Classes in English Literature, Reading, Grammar, etc. 

EDITED BY EMINENT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOLARS. 

Each Volume contains a Sketch of the Author's Life, Prefatory and 
Explanatory Notes, etc., etc. , 



1 Byron's Prophecy of Dante, 

(Cantos I. and II.) 

2 Milton*? L' Allegro, and II Pen- 

seroso. 

3 liord Bacon's Essays, Civil and 

Moral. (Selected.) 

4 Byron's Prisoner of Chillon. 

5 Moore's Fire Worshippers. 

(Lalla Rookh. Selected.) 

6 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 

7 Scott's Maruiion. (Selections 

from Canto VI.) 

8 Scott'sLay of the I.ast Minstrel. 

(Introduction and Canto I.) 

9 Burns'sCotter'sSaturdayNight, 

and other Poems 

10 Crabbe's The Village. 

11 Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. 

(Abridgment of Part 1.) 

12 Macaulay's Essay on Bunyan's 

Pilgrim's Progress. 

13 Macaulay's Armada, and other 

Poems. 

14 Shakespeare's Merchant of Ve- 

nice. (Selections from Acts I., 
III., and IV.) 

15 Goldsmith's Traveller. 

16 Hogg's Queen's Wake, andKil- 

meny. 

17 Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. 

18 Addison's Sir Roger de Cover- 

ley. 

19 Gray's Elegy in a Country 

Churchyard. 

20 Scott'sLady of the I^ake. (Canto 

I.) 

21 Shakespeare's As You Like It, 

etc. (Selections.) 

22 Shakespeare's King John, and 

Richard II. (Selections.) 

23 Shakespeare's Henry IV., Hen- 

ry v., Henry VI. (Selections.) 

24 Shakespeare's Henry VIII., and 

Julius Caesar. (Selections.) 

25 Wordsworth's Excursion. (Bk.I.) 

26 Pope's Essay on Criticism. 

27 Spenser'sFaerieQueene. (Cantos 

I. and II.) 

28 Cowper's Task. (Book I.) 

29 Milton's Comus. 

30 Tennyson's Enoch Arden, The 

Lotus Eaters, Ulysses, and 
Tlthonus. 



31 Irving's Sketch Book. (Selec- 

tions.) 

32 Dickens's Christmas Carol. 

(Condensed.) 

33 Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet. 

34 Macaulay's Warren Hastings. 

(Condensed.) 

35 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake- 

field. (Condensed.) 

36 Tennyson's The Two Voices, 

and A Dream of Fair Women. 

37 Memory Quotations. 

38 Cavalier Poets. 

39 Dryden's Alexander's Feast, 

and MaeFlecknoe. 

40 Keats's The Eve of St. Agnes. 

41 Irving.'s Legend of Sleepy Hol- 

low^. 

42 Lamb's Tales from Shake 

speare. 

43 Le Row's How to Teach Read- 

ing. 

44 Webster's Bunker Hill Ora- 

tions. 

45 The Academy Orthofepist. A 

Manual of Pronunciation. 

46 Milton's Lycidas, and Hymn 

on the Nativity. 

47 Bryant's Thanatopsis, and other 

Poems. 

48 Ruskin's Modern Painters. 

(Selections.) 

49 The Shakespeare Speaker. 

60 Thackeray's Roundabout Pa- 
pers. 

51 Webster's Oration on Adams 

and Jefferson. 

52 Brown's Rab and his Friends. 

53 Morris's Life and Death of 

Jason. 

54 Burke's Speech on American 

Taxation. 

55 Pope's Rape of the Lock. 

56 Tennyson's Elaine. 

57 Tennyson's In Memoriam. 

58 Church's Story of the ^neid. 

59 Church's Story of the Iliad. 

60 Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to 

Lilliput. 

61 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Ba- 

con. (Condensed.) 

62 The Alcestis of Euripides. Eng- 

lish Version by Rev. R. Potter.M.A. 



(Additional numbers on next page.) 



English Classic Series-coutinued. 



63 The Antigone of Sophocles. 

Englisli Version by Thos. Franck- 
lin. D.D. 

64 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 

(Selected Poems.) 

65 Robert Browning. (Selected 

Poems.) 

66 Addison's Spectator. (Selec'ns.) 

67 Scenes from George Eliot's 

Adam Bede. 

68 Matthew Arnold's Culture and 

Anarchy. 

69 DeQuincey's Joan of Arc. 

70 Carlyle's Essay on Burns. 

71 Byron's Childe Harold's Pil- 

grimage. 
73 Poe's Raven, anil other Po-ms. 
73 & 74 Macaulay's Lord Clive, 

(Double Number.) 

75 Webster's Reply to Hayne. 

76 & 77 Macaulays Lays of An- 

cient Rome. (Double Number.) 

78 American Patriotic Selections: 

Declaration of Independence, 
AVashington's Farewell Ad- 
dress, Lincoln's Gettysburg 
Speech, etc. 

79 & 80 Scott's Lady of the Lake. 

(Condensed.) 
81 & 82 Scott's Marmion. (Con- 

diMised.) 
83 & 84 Pope's Essay on Man. 

85 Shelley's Skylark, Adonais, and 

other Poems. 

86 Dickens's Cricket on the 

Hearth. 

87 Spencer's Philosophy of Style. 

88 Lamb's Essays of Ella. 

89 Cowper's Task, Book II. 

90 WordsAVorth's Selected Poems. 

91 Tennyson's The Holy Grail, and 

Sir Galahad. 

92 Addison's Cato. 

93 Irving' s Westminster Abbey, 

and Christmas Sketches. 

94 & 95 Macaulay's Earl of Chat- 

ham. Second Essay. 

96 Early Enirlish Ballads. 

97 Skel'ton, Wyatt, and Surrey, 

(Selected Poems.) 

98 Edwin Arnold. (Selected Poems.) 

99 Caxton and Daniel. (Selections.) 

100 Fuller and Hooker. (Selections.) 

101 Marlowe's Jew of Malta. (Con- 

densed.) 

103-103 Macaulay's Essay on Mil- 
ton. 

104-105 Macaulay's Essay on Ad- 
dison. 

106 Macaulay's Essay on Bos- 
Johnson. 



107 Mandeville's Travels an< W"y- 
clifte's Bible. (Selections.) -'^ 

108-1 09 Macaulay's Essay on Fred- 
erick the Great. 

110-111 Milton's Samson A83ais- 
tes. ' 

113-113-114 Franklin's Autobiok"- 
raphy. 

115-116 'Herodotus's Stories oi 
Crtesus, Cyrus, ana Babylon. 

117 Irving's Alhambra. 

118 Burke's Present Discontents. 

119 Burke's Speech on Concilia- 

tion with American Colonies. 
130 Macaulay's Essay on Byron. 
131-133 Motley's Peter the Great. 

133 Emerson's American Scholar. 

134 Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum. 
135-136 Longfellow's Evangeline. 

137 Andersen's Danish Fairy Tales. 

(Selected.) 

138 Tennyson's The Coming of 

Arthur, and The Passing of 
Arthur. 

139 Lowell's The Vision of Sir 

Launfal, and other Poems. 

130 Whittier's Songs of Labor, and 

other Poems. 

131 Words of Abraham Lincoln. 
133 Grimm's German Fairy Tales. 

(Selected.) 

Single numbers, 32 to 64 pages ; 
inniling price, 12 cents per cojty. 

Donhle numbers, 75 to 128 2>ttges; 
mailing price, 24 cents iter copy. 



well' 

ecial Prices to Teachers. 



In Preparation a large number 
of Selections from Standard Writ- 
ings for Supplementary Reading 
in Lower Grades, including 

^sop's Fables. (Selected.) 
Arabian Nights. (Selected.) 
The Nui-nberg Stove. By OuiDA. 



Sp( 



Full Descriptive Catalogue sent on application. 



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